do things

Stuff done: Not only did I work at the yoga studio the other night, I also took a yoga class with an amazing teacher. I showed up about 20 minutes early; I wanted to settle into the room, the class, and stretch a little. When I first took to my mat I realized my hips and the back of my legs were super tight. I knew class was going to be a challenge, especially since I hadn’t taken an hour and a half class in quite a while.  But - this is the point - challenge myself to DO things.

Anyway, Sarah (our teacher) started the class by talking about Buddhism. I studied Buddhism a little in college and really enjoyed it. I was drawn to it. To the idea of awareness.  To the idea of nature and simplicity.  She started talking about how yogic philosophy and Buddhist philosophy were very much akin and how the main principles of Buddhism - the four noble truths - align with yogic practices as well.

Which are:
1. Life means suffering.
2. The origin of suffering is attachment.
3. The cessation of suffering is attainable.
4. The path to the cessation of suffering.
(Found this cool website that I pulled these from!)


The overall idea is that life involves suffering - the point is not to wallow in it, the point is to use it and figure out how to get past it. She was linking this back to yoga in the sense of recognizing your bodies limitations but also knowing that it’s part of the journey to exist a little in your suffering (a pose that may be painful or feel weird to you). You can and will figure out how to work through it. How to overcome it. Also, something that always hits home for me when I think about Buddhism is that we all have a “path” - no two paths are the same. We each must walk down our road...once you're on that road; it’s not going away. You can try to jump off, but it will always follow you. There will always be this voice in the back of your head saying, "hey, dummy. I'm still here, we're still working!" and you don’t have to suffer all the time.  You just get beyond it and keep moving.

So, tha’ts my mini rant on yoga and Buddhism. I, myself, am going to work harder to incorporate both into my life!

After yoga I went here. Sort of counter productive but it’s such an awesome place and their burgers are great.